Deborah Donnelly despises the word “closure.”

“I think that this is a term over-utilized by people who are uncomfortable with someone’s strong feelings after any type of traumatic event,” writes Donnelly in her article titled “A Father’s Journey from a Daughter’s Perspective.”

‘A Father’s Journey’ is the story of a Holocaust survivor’s “never ending road of healing” told through his daughter’s eyes. Deborah Donnelly, a social worker of nearly 28 years, was honored to walk alongside her father as he came to terms with the trauma he spent so many years ignoring.

A Father’s Journey from a Daughter’s Perspective:

There is a name for who I am: a “2G.”  A “2G” means that my parents are Holocaust survivors. It was an eye opening experience for me when I found out that there was a label that both describes and has come to define a significant aspect of my belief system. It has become my passion to strive to accept people for who they are, and never tolerate, but fight against genocide, ethnic cleansing and the like.

I am going to focus on my father and his journey, through my own perspective. I will not be discussing the portion of his life that was spent in Nazi-occupied Poland, or his horrific experiences in a variety of concentration camps, however, I will reflect on how I view his life afterwards — in his own unique journey in becoming who he is today.

The earlier experiences of my life with my father are embedded in my memories. It is only in recent years that I have seen a major shift in my father’s actions and demeanor. I feel blessed to bear witness that he seems to be more at peace now than he ever was in the past.

As a child there was a sense of doom and gloom in my home. The earliest memory I have of seeing my father  with a sadness that I can not even begin to describe — he was almost at a lack of words — was when I came home from school one day, and inquired as to why I only had one set of grandparents. “Where were my other grandparents?” 

I could not have been more then six or seven years of age. My father told me that something terrible had happened, and that I was too young to understand. I am a lot older now and I still don’t understand.

When I learned of the Holocaust I asked my father questions from time to time. Whenever I did so, one of two things happened — he would answer a few questions and then yell “I don’t know, stop asking me,” (the questions were typically around the characteristics and qualities of his family) or my mother would come running from another room and tell me to leave my father alone, “don’t upset him,” she would say.

I can’t begin to share the amount of guilt I carried for upsetting my father. To this day, my father has not shared with my sister or me his experiences during the war. However, in recent years, he has been more willing and open in responding to specific questions that I may pose.

There has been a multitude of studies conducted on the impact of trauma on survivors of the Holocaust.  I find it almost impossible to understand how any human being — including my father — survived the daily torture, dehumanization, inability to protect a loved one and bearing witness to the demise of a friend or family member. Even as a social worker with an expertise in the field of trauma, I still cannot comprehend this. Then again, perhaps I chose not to in an effort to shield myself.

Recently, my father accompanied a group of adolescents to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. As part of this trip, he had to share his own story of life in the death camps, and the events preceding his imprisonment. Afterwards, my father shared with me that this particular speaking session was one of the roughest he’d experienced since he began to share his story with others. We chatted, and through exploration, one of the exhibits in the museum upset him severely. This was the same exhibit that brought me to my knees, sobbing uncontrollably, during my first visit to the Holocaust Museum.

I have to also offer some additional information on my father. He has always operated with feelings of hope in a many situations.  He can be somewhat optimistic, and has always been encouraging of me with my various endeavors. He also operates with a sense of denial; however the other side of denial is hope. If you lose hope then you lose it all. This was most evident when my mother was terminally ill.  He declined to share that tidbit of information with me that she was going to die.  When I told him that a nurse informed me that “mom was dying, he expressed that as long as there was breath in her body, a miracle can occur.  I also think he was trying to shield me from the inevitable for as long as he could. 

My father never stereotyped people. He never spouted hateful remarks towards the German or Polish people. “There is good and bad in all groups of people,” he would frequently tell me. I always told people that if my father said something bad about someone, it must be true. He has a tendency to find and focus on the positive traits in people, rather than the negative.

Like many families of survivors, there was this proverbial elephant in the room that no one wanted to address. Bringing up the topic of the Holocaust would upset my father.  My mother would also echo the same sentiments. “Stop talking about it, your father won’t sleep, you are upsetting him.”

We could be watching television and something sad or happy would happen and my father, rather than cry, would stuff his feelings — he was practically bursting in an effort to hold in his emotions. If I confronted him about it, he would deny that he was feeling anything.  So, we went through life pretty much like that.

Very seldom would my father agree to speak to a group on the Holocaust. If he did speak, there was a significant change in his mood in the days before and after the educational lecture.

Almost four years ago, my father decided to relocate.  He left the comfort and familiarity of the North East. This was the beginning of as I see his transformation, and as William Shakespeare said, “Giving sorrow words.”

As a trauma specialist, I studied a variety of therapeutic modalities to treat the effects of psychological trauma. In looking at the modalities, essentially the clinician needs to be a supportive entity and a guide through the healing process. I also believe that as human beings we have a wonderful ability within us to gather all of our resources so that we can create emotional healing. We have the capacity to change. If necessary, we are drawn to find that special someone who may help us in facilitating the healing process.

There is one treatment modality that I have found to be the most useful, Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR). EMDR was developed by Francine Shapiro, PhD. I was most fortunate in studying Part I of the EMDR Institute with her. Something she stated at the training has resonated with me: “You are just the facilitator or the guide for an individual to do the work. Support them and get out their way.” Of course, inherent in all approaches are to establish a strong, caring, relationship where an individual gains a sense of trust, safety and security.

My father did not enter therapy, but he did meet a wonderful person, Rabbi Fred Gutman. Rabbi Gutman took the time to get to know my father, gained his trust and confidence, and as Dr. Shapiro said, he got out of my father’s way. He was the beacon of light that my father needed to begin to look within him, and begin the ongoing journey to some level of healing.

My father began to share his life story. With the support and encouragement of the Rabbi, my father spoke to groups all over his geographical area. At Rabbi Gutman’s invitation, he went on March of the Living three times.

The energies were open. On the 61^st anniversary of his liberation by the Americans, we found his brother’s children. My father was led to believe that his brother was mortally wounded in the Russian Army.

 I despise the word closure. I think that this is a term over-utilized by people who are uncomfortable with someone’s strong feelings after any type of traumatic event. It is a great privilege to walk alongside someone and bare witness as a survivor strived towards the healing process. Closure is also a great term for clinicians to use in setting up treatment plans, as well as justifying continued therapy to insurance companies.

The best that we can hope for is that a person becomes less symptomatic, and can define, in their own words, what the event has done or means in their own lives in the present. My father will now open up a bit more with my sister and I. When I ask him some questions, he will direct me to his video tapes. I can not get past one point in his history when I listen or watch one of his documentations. During a recent visit with my father, I asked him, “During the time of the Holocaust, was there one memory that stands out as being the worst for you?” He said “yes,” and that is the one point in the video or tapes that I sense and feel his pain so intensely that I turn it off.

My father has not had an easy life. His own father died of an industrial accident when he was an infant. Due to his mother’s impoverished life, he could not live with her until he was 13 years old. Despite all of his hardships, he was and is a wonderful father. He never had a role model growing up, yet he did a great job at being a father.  I have wonderful memories of all the things my sister and I did with my father on Saturdays while my mother worked.

Has my dad had closure? No, there is no such thing. He has done a lot of work to give the events of that horrific time a place in his life. My father is on the never ending road of healing. He has chosen how he attributes meaning and what he wants to do at this crossroad.

It was at this crossroad that my father also had unexpected meeting. He was at an event at his temple, when he saw the Rabbi pointing him out to an elderly man. They were introduced, and this man was an American Soldier who liberated two concentration camps. One of the two concentration camps was Ebensee. My father looked at this man, and said, “You liberated me.” Ebensee was the last Camp of my father’s persecution.

Rabbi Gutman was the catalyst in helping my father share his experiences and journey to a better place. Overall, my father appears less constrictive, and will allow himself to experience the great pain as well as the wonderful joy he has in his life. He continues to laugh and cry when appropriate. There is less stuffing of the unpleasant feelings. I am so proud that my father is telling his story. The ending has changed, as he now knows he was not the only survivor. My father has endless energy in a variety of aspects in his life.  He is determined to share his story so we will never forget.

Thanks dad for being you!!

I read in this news article a few minutes ago, that Yitzhak “Ike” Ahronovitch has died at the age of 86. He was the captain of the Exodus ship, the famed ship that failed in July 1947 to take Holocaust survivors to Israel.

May his memory be for a Loving Blessing

You can read the full article here.

Jew Wishes…Peace to you all.
~~~~~~
© Copyright 2007 – All Rights Reserved – No permission is given or allowed to reuse my photography, book reviews, writings, or my poetry in any form/format without my express written consent/permission.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009 – 6th of Tevet, 5770

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1259831476019&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

A quick viewing and reading recommendation:

Keep an eye out for the new documentary film, Four Seasons Lodge, as it makes its way to screenings and festivals around the continent. It just finished an almost month-long run in New York and is now showing in Boston and Los Angeles. I’ve already put it on my Netflix “saved” list so I’ll eventually get it when it is released on DVD, if I don’t have the opportunity to see it in the theater first. Here’s the trailer for the movie, directed by New York Times writer Andrew Jacobs:

The archival footage of young Holocaust survivors at the summer bungalow colonies in the Catskills made me think of Thane Rosenbaum’s short story, “Bingo By The Bungalow” in his first book (a novel-in-stories), Elijah Visible. The story is set at Cohen’s Summer Cottages, where the sign above the property’s entrance reads, “Leisure Macht Frei.”

Rosenbaum is the author of an acclaimed Second Generation trilogy, which also includes the novels, Second Hand Smoke and The Golems of Gotham.

© 2009 Renee Ghert-Zand. All rights reserved.

Red Cross Opens 13 Holocaust Tracing Cases and Counting After Series of Presentations

• There are over 200,000 Holocaust survivors living in the U.S.
• The Red Cross has conducted 40,000 Holocaust tracing cases over the years.
• The Red Cross has created over 1,500 family reunions between Holocaust survivors.
• There are over 100 Red Cross Holocaust tracing cases currently pending in Palm Beach County.

West Palm Beach, FL (November 13, 2009)—The Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter of the American Red Cross’ Holocaust Tracing initiative is off and running with 13 new requests received in just two days, and many more to come.  The Chapter recently hosted Ms. Linda Klein, Director of the Holocaust & War Victims Tracing Center which is located in Baltimore, MD. In just three days’ time, Klein and a team of Red Cross volunteers met face to face with close to 1,000 people, approximately 200 of whom were Holocaust survivors. In less than a week, the Red Cross has submitted 13 tracing requests to the Tracing Center in Baltimore, and that number continues to grow each day.

            Klein met with members of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County’s Business and Professions Division; case workers at Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service in Boca Raton; Child Survivors/Hidden Children of the Holocaust president Norman Frajman, Boynton Beach; Alpert Jewish Family & Children Service staff members in West Palm Beach; and over 150 Holocaust survivors at Eat and Schmooze in Boca Raton, a partnership luncheon between the Volen Center, Next Generations, Alpert Jewish Family & Children Service and Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service, designed to meet the unique socialization needs of survivors. Klein also gave presentations at several area temples including Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Boynton, Boynton Beach; Temple Beth Tikvah, Lake Worth; Temple Shaarei Shalom, Boynton Beach; Temple Beth El, West Palm Beach; and Temple Beth Zion, Royal Palm Beach.

            Klein explained the Red Cross’ little-known free tracing program by emphasizing four key points. She explained “We have to do this to tell the stories of people who were lost and we need to give families information so that they may pass on legacies.” She continued, “The Red Cross needs to address the deniers by showing them our proof, and we need to give some form of solace to Holocaust survivors and their families.” The Red Cross is 70% successful in its tracing cases, having reunited 1,500 families and provided documents such as birth certificates and concentration camp records to others.

Klein said, “In the Jewish faith, name and date of death are very important to those in mourning. Our service uncovers those kinds of answers and in a number of cases, we see miracles happen.” Klein explained, “There is no trend to the types of things we see; every story is different than every other story.” Survivors are urged to initiate tracing searches immediately.  The Tracing Center’s motto is “Every Answer is a Gift.”

As part of her outreach, Klein trained 24 new Red Cross Holocaust & War Victims Tracing volunteers; the largest influx of tracing volunteers the Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter of the American Red Cross has experienced to-date. Red Cross Chapter Chairman Michael A. Lampert, Esq., said “We’re a disaster service and we deal with implications of disasters.” He added, “This is one of those implications.” The volunteers plan to meet one on one with survivors and their families to conduct interviews. During the time that their cases are open, the tracing volunteers serve as liaisons to the local Red Cross and ultimately they deliver any kind of information the Tracing Center uncovers.

The group of tracing volunteers put their skills to work on Sunday, November 8^th as 30 first and second-generation Holocaust survivors met at the Red Cross in Boca Raton to find out more about the tracing service and initiate searches. Leah Nettis, the daughter of two Holocaust survivors and a Boca Raton resident, said “All my life I heard about the assumed fates of my family members, and ‘no’ just isn’t in my vocabulary.” Nettis plans to fill out tracing forms on each of her extended family members on behalf of her living mother.

The Red Cross tracing service has accessed resources and archives throughout the world, including the complete holdings of the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany, since the Soviet Union’s release of documents to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1989. That cache of documents, which included Auschwitz death books and hundreds of thousands of names of concentration camp victims, provided the single largest source of information made available since the end of World War II. The American Red Cross has worked with 89 countries around the world to uncover information. When asked about Red Cross International Tracing, Klein said, “What makes our service unique is the richness and expertise of our world-wide network.”

With 5 to 10 Holocaust survivors dying each day, the time to begin a search is now. Survivors who initiate searches receive an expedited service. To access a search, survivors or their family members are urged to contact the Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter of the American Red Cross anytime at (561) 833-7711 or on the web at www.redcross-pbc.org. Inquirers will need to gather the following information about sought person: relationship to inquirer; first and last name; date of birth or approximate year or range of years of birth; country of birth; country last resided; and last contact with sought person. 

# # #

About the Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter of the American Red Cross:

For over 90 years, the Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter of the American Red Cross, which includes Glades, Hendry, Okeechobee and Palm Beach counties, has provided relief to victims of disasters at home and abroad, taught lifesaving skills, and supported military members and families. The American Red Cross, a charity and not a government agency, depends on voluntary contributions of time and money to perform its humanitarian mission. To learn more about the work of the Red Cross in communities, or to make a donation, please call 561-833-7711 or visit our website at  www.redcross-pbc.org.

Often when faced with a crisis, I get in my car and drive.  No particular destination in mind, just wheels to the pavement and time alone to think.  Years ago during one such excursion, as I passed perfectly manicured homes, it occurred to me that no one truly knows what goes on behind those decorative doors.  In Susan Meissner’s White Picket Fences, the Janvier family lives what appears to be a perfect life.  When mom Amanda takes in the 16 year old daughter of her wandering brother, their seemingly ideal world begins to fall apart.  Her husband, Neil, is not quite as enthusiastic about trying to provide their niece, Tally, with a stable home.  Their children, Chase and Delcey are unsurprisingly absorbed in their own lives and give little thought to their cousin’s stay.   Things change, however, when Chase and Tally work together on a school assignment involving Holocaust survivors.  They begin to develop a closer bond as their project progresses and family secrets rise to the surface.  White Picket Fences is a dramatic, engaging story that looks beyond the façade and finds the heart of a family.  

For more information or to purchase a copy, click on the photo below:

If you’d like to win a FREE copy of White Picket Fences, please leave a comment below.  Winner will be chosen at random from all comments left between 11/13/09 and 11/23/09.

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.

Recipes #12,13 and 14, pizza dough, pizza with tomato and mozzarella and white and whole wheat bread.

Pizza dough made by Luca

Last Sunday I had a little bread baking party with a couple of moms and their two boys who are good friends of Luca’s from school. The last time I tried baking bread was in college when I was preparing to play Saint Joan and was giving The Method a shot by baking bread and washing my sheets by hand. Washing the sheets almost broke my back and it must be that I forever associated the bread baking with it because I have always thought of it as exceedingly difficult and not really worth the trouble. I learned on Sunday how wrong I have been all these years. All you need to bake bread besides time is some good company.

Of course it helped to have an experienced baker in the kitchen. I have never actually eaten a full meal at Amy’s house, but it’s impossible to go to her house, even for five minutes, without her offering you a million different things that she just happens to have in the fridge and that she whipped up the day before. Some of these offerings (she calls them “snacks”) have included homemade blintzes; various soups such as bean, cabbage, vegetable and chicken soup with homemade matzoh balls; strudel; lasagne; and challah bread. A snack in my house is a banana or some chips out of a bag. I have seen people leave Amy’s house laden with Tupperware containers full of roasted meats, coffee cake and cabbage rolls.

I was looking forward to the old-fashioned-quilting-bee aspect of our afternoon, three women communing over a shared activity that would result in some homemade deliciousness. Bread is the simplest of foods and is symbolic of many things from friendship to God. But for me, the Italians sum it up best: “Bread is all food, the rest is accompaniment.”

Since there would be three or four different breads rising at various different times that afternoon, I suggested to Luca that, before our friends arrived, he tackle the pizza dough recipe from Fanny at Chez Panisse. That way we would have a nice pizza to bake for everybody later. It took a little coaxing because Luca could think of nothing else but playing with two of his best friends. Amy’s son Micah is a great pal of Luca’s. The first time Micah came to our house we were living in an old beach shack in Venice Beach. As he climbed the rickety steps to the house, Micah said: “It must be a drag to live here.” I adore this kid.

That same day in Venice, Luca and Micah had a conversation about God. They were both six years old and were figuring out their differences while I typed madly on my laptop trying to transcribe it all. Micah’s grandparents, Amy’s parents, are Holocaust survivors who were interned at Auschwitz. Amy is a Reform Jew and says that she “learned at an early age that I had to repopulate the world with Jews.” (She’s not doing badly on that score; she has three sons)

Here is Luca and Micah’s conversation about God:

Luca: Jewish people believe in things that are not true.

Micah: Christian people believe in things that are not true, too.

Luca: I don’t believe in things that are not true.

Micah: What is true?

Luca: The queen is true. She lives in England. God doesn’t exist.

Micah: Yes, he does.

Luca: That’s magic stuff.

Micah: No it’s not. Do you believe in Christ?

Luca: No.

Micah: You are a Christian.

Luca: No I’m not. I’m an American.

Micah: But you’re a Christian. Americans can be Christians and Jewish.

Luca: Let’s play another game.

Micah: God does exist – there has to be a god, the thing that made us. There has to be something that made us.

Luca: No, our dad did. He made the seed.

Micah: He made the seed?

Luca: Yeah. He made the seed. And it went in the egg, and you grew in your mom’s tummy and then you came out. Our dad actually made the seeds.

Micah: How?

Luca: I don’t know but he made the seeds.

Micah: Luca, you don’t get it. You said it was unfair that gods have the power of invisibility. But if god has the power of invisibility, then you just leave him alone.

Luca: OK, then don’t pray to him. If you leave him alone then don’t pray to him.

Micah: Well, if you leave him alone and not pray to him then he’ll get mad at you.

Luca: Jewish have to do that but not Christians.

Micah: Yes they do.

Luca: I don’t.

Micah: You don’t pray?

Luca: No. I don’t go to church. I only go to school and classes.

Micah: You don’t go to church?

Luca: No. I just do whatever I want. I play around. I only go to school and classes and that’s it. I don’t go anywhere.

Micah: You only go to school and that’s it?

Luca: I don’t go to church. I only go to the cemetery.

Micah: I went to a cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Luca:  Me too!

Micah: But there is a cemetery in California.

Luca: But that’s not the one I went to. I went to the one where my uncle is buried. So when I go to visit him when he’s dead, I have to go there.

Micah: You go to visit him when he’s dead?

Luca: Yeah.

Micah: You can’t visit him when he’s dead.

Luca: Yes you can. That’s how all the flowers get there. By people visiting.

Micah: No. People plant seeds.

This discussion held several surprises for me; that the Queen of England is truer than God, for one. But the main surprise was that Luca was such a fierce agnostic. He had been to church once with his cousins and pronounced it “boring,” and “a lot of magic stuff.” But since we had not discussed the subject much I hadn’t realized how strongly he felt. (It was also interesting to learn that the dad makes the babies because he makes the seed, never mind what I remember about months of backache, nausea and exhaustion.)

Luca dissolved the yeast in warm water and a little milk, and right away the whole room smelled like bread. “What is yeast?” Luca asked. I had no good answer except to say that it was what made the bread rise and that it was alive. This must be why I don’t know what yeast is, because any time I have asked the same question, I get a similarly lame answer. (Anyone who actually knows what yeast is, please post a comment.)

Great illustration by Ann Arnold

He added the flour, salt and olive oil and mixed it around until it was too thick to stir. Then he sprinkled some flour on the counter and started kneading. I love watching Luca knead dough. He goes at it with intensity and passion. Plus he’s good at it.

When he was done, we rubbed olive oil all over the cleaned bowl and Luca placed the dough inside. The smell was divine, just like a New York pizzeria. Luca must have been reading my mind because just then asked me if he could spin it around in the air when it was time to make the pizza pie. I said he could try it if he wanted, but by that time, he was too involved in playing with his friends.

Luca kneading

Then we covered it with a towel and put it in the oven to rise (the oven was off). I made tomato sauce, grated mozzarella and chopped some fresh basil for the pizza. When it was time, Luca punched down the pizza dough (he loved this). Then he kneaded the dough again, got a little silly with it until I told him to cut it out, and put it back in the bowl for another rise.

punching the dough

Later, after the three boys had had their first fight and then got settled into some friendly Star Wars battles, the three women made bread. Amy made a dill and cottage cheese bread and Marie a gluten-free loaf. I made the White and Whole Wheat Bread from the Alice Waters cookbook figuring that if it was a recipe meant for kids it couldn’t be as hard as washing sheets by hand.

Baking bread is a great excuse to hang out because there is so much waiting around time. Marie brought her mother, so there were three generations of us in the house all engaged in our various activities including kneading, killing off the Death Star, reading, drinking raspberry-infused vodka gimlets, brokering peace among the boys, making soup, taking photos, and of course baking bread in two ovens and trying to keep track of the baking and rising times for each (made harder by the drinking of the vodka gimlets).

I used more whole wheat and less white flour than Alice Waters’ recipe called for. This is what mine looked like before it went into the oven.

This was Amy’s bread right out of the oven.

At the end of the day we sat down to three kinds of bread with a few other things as accompaniment. Marie made a nice barley soup, I baked the pizza and we had some wine. All the breads were delicious. Warmth all around.

Atlit was an internment camp for illegal immigrants in Palestine before the creation of Israel.  Day After Night is a fictionalized account of the weeks leading up to the liberation of its inmates in 1945.  It’s a gripping story that addresses the aftermath of the Holocaust and the difficulties of pre-Israel Palestine, told through the eyes of four young women who are inmates in Atlit.  All four arrive in Palestine by the skin of their teeth; all of them have widely divergent tales to tell from the hell that was Nazi-controlled Europe.  

Diamant captures well the uncertainty and dismay of inmate life – the feeling that they exchanged one form of detainment for another, the lack of belief in a future, etc.  She also sheds light on the idealists and the dreamers of the time and place who later played such an integral part in the formation of the state of Israel.  The book is definitely a welcome addition to literature about the shaky times immediately following World War II.    

(William Hicks, Information Services)

Author: Art Spiegelman

Publication: New York: Pantheon, 1986

ISBN: 0-394-74723-2

Plot summary: Art Spiegelman asked his father, Vladek, to recount his experiences during World War II as a Jew living in Nazi-occupied Poland, and the result is Maus. Vladek tells of how he and Anja, Art’s mother, had to live in the ghetto and were hidden for a time in a non-Jewish Polish household. Both Vladek and Anja are held in the Auschwitz concentration camps. In a time of sadness Vladek destroyed Anja’s diaries, so much of her story, apart from Vladek’s story, is gone. Part of Maus is Art’s reactions to his father, the nature of their relationship; but in the end, it is the remembering and telling that Maus is about–as Vladeik told his tale, and Art carried it on, so the reality of what happened to Vladek and millions of others will not be lost.

Series/related titles: Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: And Here My Troubles Began (1992)

Curriculum ties: World War II, Holocaust, Holocaust survivors

Booktalking ideas: 1) Why did Art Spiegelman choose the graphic format for his novel about the Holocaust? 2) How old should a child be when he or she learns about the Holocaust? Should the age be older or younger if the child has relatives who were killed in the Holocaust?

Recommended age of reader: 13+

Challenge issues: Persecution, cruelty, hangings

Response to challenges: Standard procedure: 1) Speak with the person making the challenge and actively listen to his or her concerns. 2) Ask politely if the person has read the entire book or just certain sections of it (they may have a section out of context). 3) Have on hand the selection policies governing the collection. 4) Have reviews of the book so that you can show that the title is highly rated and mention any awards it may have received. 5) Offer to work out an individual remedy, such as the parent asking his or her child not to check out certain books. 6) Have the reconsideration form and next steps ready to explain if the patron/parent is not satisfied after you have gone through the previous steps.

Selected reviews and awards: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, 1992; “Maus compels us to bear witness in a different way: the very artificiality of its surface makes it possible to imagine the reality beneath” (Newsweek).

Why is this book included? Maus leads the pack among serious, substantial graphic novels. Perhaps because it is based on a father talking to his son, albeit an adult one, this is a Holocaust story that is not organized around the enormity of events but rather the significance of even an individual’s loss, the personal and particular. It is powerful in the way meeting a Holocaust survivor is, by giving a face and a name to catastrophe of unfathomable magnitude.

Search to Benefit Holocaust Survivors Intensifies

• There are over 200,000 Holocaust survivors living in the U.S.
• The Red Cross has conducted 40,000 Holocaust tracing cases over the years.
• The Red Cross has created over 1,500 family reunions between Holocaust survivors.
• There are over 100 Red Cross Holocaust tracing cases currently pending in Palm Beach County. 

West Palm Beach, FL (October 29, 2009)—The Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter of the American Red Cross is redoubling its efforts to find answers for survivors who lost loved ones during the World War II era more than 60 years ago. From Thursday, November 4^th to Sunday, November 8^th, the local Red Cross will host distinguished guest Linda Klein, Director of the Red Cross Holocaust & War Victims Tracing and Information Center, which is located in Baltimore. Klein will travel throughout Palm Beach County, spreading word of the Red Cross’ free tracing service with a sense of urgency to community groups including Alpert Jewish Family & Children’s Service, Child Survivors/Hidden Children of the Holocaust, the American Red Cross, Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service, the Volen Center, and several area temples.

On Sunday, November 8^th, the Chapter is hosting an informal community-wide reception at the Count & Countess de Hoernle Service Center of the American Red Cross from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. (5820 North Federal Highway, Boca Raton, 33487). Holocaust survivors and their descendants; families of Holocaust victims; Veterans; and those with a general interest in war victims tracing and how it resonates in the mission of today’s Red Cross are encouraged to attend the free event, where they can connect over a light kosher lunch. A team of the organization’s volunteers will be available that day to begin search inquiries. Guests will also have the chance to meet local people who have successfully found answers regarding the fate of loved ones by utilizing Red Cross tracing. At the events’ close, Klein will leave for Baltimore.

About the Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing Center:

The Center for Information on Holocaust Restitution estimates that 5 to 10 survivors die each day. As time runs out for aging survivors, the Red Cross Holocaust Tracing Service offers to search for family members and document the fates of loved ones through personal services that are comprehensive, confidential and free of charge. The Red Cross tracing service has accessed resources and archives throughout the world, including the complete holdings of the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany, since the Soviet Union’s release of documents to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1989. That cache of documents, which included Auschwitz death books and hundreds of thousands of names of concentration camp victims, provided the single largest source of information made available since the end of World War II.

The Red Cross has operated this specialized tracing service for the past 19 years. Over the course of just a few months, the Tracing Center recently located 20 individuals and recovered information, such as date of death, on 400 others. Overall, the organization has found more than 1,500 survivors alive. In thousands of other cases, inquirers have discovered information about the circumstances of a loved one’s death. Others access this service for documentation of forced/slave labor or proof of internment.

To Begin a Search:

To access a search, survivors or their family members are urged to contact the Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter of the American Red Cross anytime at (561) 833-7711, visit the Red Cross on the web at www.redcross-pbc.org, or attend any Ms. Klein’s upcoming presentations. Inquirers will need to gather the following information about sought person: relationship to inquirer; first and last name; date of birth or approximate year or range of years of birth; country of birth; country last resided; and last contact with sought person. 

ATTEND A PRESENTATION:

Thursday, November 5, 2009:

• Eat & Schmooze, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Join Linda Klein over lunch at the Volen Center in Boca Raton as Alpert Jewish Family & Children’s Service, Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service, Next Generations and the Volen Center partner to meet the unique socialization needs of Holocaust survivors. Free kosher lunch for seniors and transportation available; call Genevieve Mosley at (561) 395-8920 before 12 p.m. no later than one day in advance to RSVP. The Volen Center is located at 1515 West Palmetto Park Road in Boca Raton.
• Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Boynton, 5 p.m.: Linda Klein will participate in a presentation at 10655 El Clair Ranch Road in Boynton Beach.
• Temple Beth Tikvah Cultural Series, 7 p.m.: Join Linda Klein for Temple Beth Tikvah’s cultural series kick-off presentation at 4550 Jog Road in Lake Worth.

Friday, November 6, 2009,

• Red Cross volunteer & staff address, 9 a.m.: Learn more about Red Cross Holocaust & War Victims Tracing at local Red Cross Headquarters (825 Fern Street, West Palm Beach). Immediately followed by a Holocaust Tracing Volunteer Workshop where individuals can share stories and register to volunteer. RSVP to Brittany Jo Miller, (561) 650-9114.
• Temple Shaarei Shalom, 8 p.m.: Linda Klein will speak at Temple Shaarei Shalom’s service, 9085 Hagen Ranch Road in Boynton Beach.

Saturday, November 7, 2009, Temple Beth El presentation, 9 a.m.: Linda will make a presentation during services at 2815 North Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach.

Sunday, November 8, 2009, Reconnect Holocaust Survivors, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Holocaust survivors and their descendants; families of Holocaust victims; Veterans; and those who have a general interest in war victims tracing and how it resonates in the mission of today’s Red Cross are encouraged to attend and connect over a light kosher lunch at the Red Cross in Boca Raton (5820 North Federal Highway). RSVP to Brittany Jo Miller, (561) 650-9114.

More About Linda Klein:

Linda Cauthen Klein was appointed Director of the Red Cross Holocaust and War Victims Tracing and Information Center in April, 1994. Before that, she was the Communications Director for the Red Cross Central Maryland Chapter and Greater Chesapeake and Potomac Blood Services Region. As director of the tracing center, Ms. Klein is responsible for its day-to-day operations. In 2002, she traveled to Israel to help Magen David Adom establish a tracing office in Tel Aviv. Ms. Klein has also developed capacity building programs with tracing departments in Canada and Poland.

Before joining the Red Cross, Ms. Klein was the Assistant Director of Marketing and Public Relations for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She has written numerous articles and reviews for the Baltimore Jewish Times, and she served as president of the Baltimore Public Relations Council in 1996 and 1997. Ms. Klein holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and a Masters from Towson State University. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Edward A. Myerberg Senior Center and was the recipient of the 2006 Gloria Harris Award for outstanding volunteer service. She lives in Reistertown, MD with her husband, Yale.

# # #

About the Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter of the American Red Cross:

For over 90 years, the Greater Palm Beach Area Chapter of the American Red Cross, which includes Glades, Hendry, Okeechobee and Palm Beach counties, has provided relief to victims of disasters at home and abroad, taught lifesaving skills, and supported military members and families. The American Red Cross, a charity and not a government agency, depends on voluntary contributions of time and money to perform its humanitarian mission. To learn more about the work of the Red Cross in communities, or to make a donation, please call 561-833-7711 or visit our website at  www.redcross-pbc.org.

Retell: Easter is around the corner and Miss Eula wants a new hat to wear to church.  Her grandchildren and her young neighbor decide to ask Mr. Kodinski if they could work at his hat shop to earn extra money.  On the way to his shop, he mistakes the children for vandals.  They come up with an interesting way to earn back his trust as well as earn enough money for a new hat.

Topics: reputation, hats, chutzpah, Easter, vandalism, gifts, Holocaust survivors

Units of Study: Personal Narrative, Memoir, Social Issues, Talking and Writing About Texts

Tribes: mutual respect, personal best

Habits of Mind: thinking flexibly, creating-imagining-innovating, persisting

Reading Skills: questioning, inference

Writing Skills: zooming in on small moments, repeating powerful lines

My Thoughts: If you follow this blog daily, you’re sick of seeing entries about Patricia Polacco.  I can’t help it.  I love her work.  Since I’m currently in the Personal Narrative mindset, her work naturally comes to mind.  The illustrations in this book can be powerful teaching tools.  Throughout Chicken Sunday, real photographs appear in the background.  This shows that Polacco thinks about significant people in her life and then writes stories about them. I love how Mr. Kodinski’s story can be inferred through the illustrations.  Previously, Miss Eula alluded to the fact that he wanted a peaceful life after suffering so much.  The text never states specifically why he had a difficult life.  The illustrations give you the information.  Tattooed on Mr. Kodinski’s arm are six blue numbers, revealing that he survived the concentration camps.  This book shows students how readers can reread a text and peal a different layer of meaning with each reading.

I read a poignant and inspirational article regarding the 1939 transporting of children to England during the Holocaust. On September 1, 2009, a memorial train left Prague for a four day trip to London. The train marks the 70th anniversary of the children who were evacuated between March and September, 1939, and 22 of the original individuals (Survivors), will be on the train.

Nicholas Winton, now 100 years old, the man who organized the journeys of the 669 children (mainly Jewish), will meet the train in London on Friday September 4, 2009.

Read the entire inspiring article, here.

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.” John Williams, Jr.
~~~~~~
Thursday September 3, 2009 – 14th of Elul, 5769

Gertruda’s Oath: A Child, a Promise, and a Heroic Escape During World War II, by Ram Oren is a lovely story, and a beautifully written testimony of how young, Jewish Michael Stolowitzky survived the Holocaust. Gertruda Babilinska was Michael’s nanny, and without her, it is doubtful that Michael would have survived.

Gertruda’s Oath often reads like a book of intrigue, with its pages filled with drama and riveting sequences. It is a true story, though, depicting the courage, strength, determination, and love of Gertruda for Michael.

What sets it apart from other Holocaust stories is the fact that there are three primary stories of varied characters within the one book.

Gertruda is a Polish Catholic who works for the Stolowitzky family as a nanny to their son, Michael. Gertruda and Michael develop a very close relationship, and Michael relies on her for almost everything. He hardly lets her out of his sight.

Lydia and Jacob Stolowitzky live in a mansion on a hilltop in Warsaw. They are an extremely wealthy Jewish family. Jacob travels often for his varied business enterprises and holdings. He believes that his financial standing will enable him to cross borders, will help him to handle his financial interests, and will help him to survive and overcome any obstacle. He and Lydia seem to be a bit oblivious as to what is going on around them, until it is almost too late.

Meanwhile, there is Karl Rink, his wife Mira, and their daughter Helga. Mira is a Jew. Karl has become an SS officer, and seems to be completely naive and ignorant of what this could mean for Mira and Helga. He waves off Mira’s concerns. He truly believes that their marriage won’t become an issue with his SS superiors, and that in due time they will accept the fact he is married to a Jew. Mira, on the other hand, is quite aware of what the consequences could bring. Rink eventually comes into Gertruda and Michael’s lives.

As days go by, it becomes clear that Lydia is going to die. She makes Gertruda promise to protect Michael, protect him as if he is her own son. She gives Gertruda her wedding band. From that moment forward, Gertruda considers Michael to be her son. From that moment forward the drama of their lives unfolds before the reader, and is a story like no other.

Gertruda does everything in her power to protect Michael and keep him safe. She regrets none of her endeavors. She works long hours, often without monetary pay, but for food and/or lodging. She and Michael are constantly on the run. Their lives are a far cry from the ones of privilege in Warsaw. Along the way strangers befriend her, and help her and Michael to survive. Her love and determination is endless, timeless, and she will do anything for Michael’s safety.

The lives of Gertruda and the Rinks cross on occasion, and gives her more strength to continue on. Once Rink realizes that there is no hope, he manages to send his daughter, Helga, to Israel for her own safety. There she is involved in kibbutz life.

Gertruda and Michael make their way to Vilna where she feels it will be safer. Because Gertruda is Catholic, and because she tells the authorities that Michael is her son, they don’t have to move to the ghetto. They are there during the brutality and destruction of the city. They eventually embark for Israel aboard the ship the Exodus, and the British refused entry for the ship.

Gertruda’s Oath is a story of not only love and determination, but one of the horrors of the Holocaust told from a unique perspective. It begs us to ponder many issues, such as what we would do under similar circumstances. Would we risk our lives, as Gertruda did, in order to save another individual? What do we owe those we are employed by? What do we owe ourselves in time of great adversity, horror, conflict and devastation? Would we risk everything in order to suffer through the discomfort, in order to save another?

For Gertruda, there was no option. She didn’t even have to think about those questions, as her love for Michael was so strong, like a mother’s love. Gertruda’s Oath is a strong testament to her commitment to Michael, and to the love each one had for the other. Through the darkness the finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. They survived, and that they did was an incredible feat on Gertruda’s part. Her courage, tenacity, and strength to overcome obstacles was incredible. The story is extremely intense, leaving nothing to the imagination.

As an adult, Michael has his own story, told within the pages of Gertruda’s Oath, as he tried to claim the millions of dollars his father had in Swiss bank accounts. He found surprises along the journey.

Once in Israel, Gertruda worked long hours in order to earn enough money for her and Michael to live. It mattered not that she washed floors. Michael was never unappreciative, and was always there for Gertruda, as she aged. He was always cognizant as to the extremes Gertruda went through in order to save him and raise him. That he was grateful is an understatement. He was a dutiful “son”. He was there for her, at the end, as she was there for him at the beginning. Gertrude’s Oath, by Ram Oren is Michael’s way of honoring her, his testament of his love for her and his testament of her devotion to him.

Gertruda is one of The Righteous Among the Nations.

Gertruda’s Oath, by Ram Oren, is a compelling book. It is one that reveals the beauty of humankind, and a book that is inspirational and encouraging. Through compassion Gertruda and Michael’s story is one that conveys to what depths personal responsibility will carry one through. She was an unassuming woman of heroic stature. Her sense of honor and character is boldly stated within the pages. It is told through survivor interviews, through documentations and records. It is riveting, harrowing, heartwarming, well written by Ram Oren, and intense. It is a must read for everyone.

I highly recommend Gertruda’s Oath to everyone. It is a story that will stay with you long after you finish reading it. It belongs in every school, university and public library. It belongs in every personal library, and is on a bookshelf in mine.
~~~~~~

© Copyright 2007 – All Rights Reserved – No permission is given or allowed to reuse my photography, book reviews, writings, or my poetry in any form/format without my express written consent/permission.

Wednesday August 19, 2009 – 29th of Av, 5769

There is a project going on that brings together children of top Nazis with Holocaust survivors. There is a short video that you can see here that shows interviews with these descendants of some of the worst monster-humans to ever live. It’s heart-wrenching to watch and so interesting.

Shrine to Stephen Johns at the Holocaust Museum (Courtesy: myrick_andy64)

(Apologies: I could not find a link to a video of the funeral that worked. Perhaps later…)

As the Washington Post saw it:

The funeral began about 11 a.m., but the first mourners got to the church about 7:30. Johns’s bronze coffin arrived at the church in a white hearse and was carried in by an honor guard of officers from the Holocaust and Smithsonian museums. At 9 a.m. mourners were allowed in to view the body, walking up to two security guards posted on both sides of the open casket. Leading the mourners were Johns’s fellow security officers from Wackenhut security firm. Several officers saluted the casket as they walked by.

Johns was dressed in a cream linen suit, a toy butterfly on the pillow next to him. A recording of local recording artist Jeff Majors’s “Psalm 23″ was played as mourners streamed in to view the body.

Over two thousand people attended the services. Johns’ family alone took 18 pews of the 3,000-capacity church. Several of Johns’ cousins (and aunts and uncles) were given plane tickets by Rep. John Conyers of Michigan after they said on Detroit television news that they could not afford to attend the funeral and say farewell.

Johns’ widow, Zakiah, and his son, Stephen Jr., wept continuously throughout the service. They were joined by Zakiah’s sons and Stephen Jr.’s stepbrothers, Jeffrey Pollard and Tysean Lawson-Bey. The couple had just celebrated their first anniversary together only a month before he was mortally wounded. Zakiah had told her pastor hours after the slaying that all she wanted was her husband back. At the close of the service, Stephen Jr. was awarded one of the flags that draped his father’s coffin, along with his stepmother and grandmother. Politics Daily had this to say:

Dr. John McCoy delivered the eulogy. He recalled the day he performed Stephen and Zakiah Johns’ wedding ceremony. The couple celebrated their first anniversary last month. “Stephen and Zakiah vowed to love, honor, and cherish each other, til death do us part,” McCoy said. “Who could have imagined death would come so soon? Who could have imagined Stephen could fall victim to a senseless and barbaric act as he extended a kindness?”

Both whispering and bellowing from the pulpit, McCoy remembered Johns as sometimes shy, but always full of laughter and with a zest for life. But his death, McCoy said, is tragic proof that the end of racism has not yet arrived in America. “There is an element in this country that still desires for the Holocaust to continue.”

He cautioned mourners not to give in to the hate that had taken Johns’ life. Instead, he said, they should rise up against it — not in anger, but in strength. “Silence is not a safe response in the face of racism, sexism, or any of the other isms in this world,” he said. “Silence is unforgivable for those who call themselves children of God or even civilized.”

Family, friends, fellow police officers and Holocaust survivors nodded and cheered at McCoy’s words, embracing the notion that Johns did not die in vain, and that their loss had a greater meaning.

WashPo also reported that other pews were reserved for Holocaust survivors.

Nesse Godin, 81, a Holocaust survivor who volunteers at the museum, said Johns and the other officers would greet them with a kiss on the cheek and a hug each morning when she arrived.

“He was a wonderful man,” she said.

About 9:30 a.m. a caravan of buses rolled up to the church, carrying several hundred staff members from the Holocaust Museum.

Police and security officers also attended the funeral, as well as bigwigs from the government, such as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and former defense secretary William S. Cohen and his wife Janet, who were at the museum the day of the shooting. Janet Langhart Cohen was to mount a one-act play the evening of the shooting about Anne Frank and Emmett Till meeting each other in the next world.

And again, people:

Museum officials set up a memorial fund for the Johns family. To make an online contribution, go to the Johns Family Fund at http://www.ushmm.org. Checks payable to the Johns Family Fund may be mailed to the museum at 100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl. SW, Washington, D.C. 20024. Contributions can also be made by calling 877-918-7466.

I came into school today, on a Saturday, to start packing up my room for a move to another room.

But it is the 6th of June.

Instead I am getting nothing done, mesmerized by the scenes, live from Normandy, of the 65th anniversary celebration.

The President is there and so are 250 American veterans of the battle for Normandy,  including one of my good  friends, Buster Simmons, of the 30th Infantry Division. The Greatest Generations Foundation sponsored his visit with 9 other vets and college kids. Now I’m looking for him in the sea of faces.

My son Ned and I watched him last night as a “Person of the Week” on ABC World News in a story I contributed to. If you view the clip, you can see the photograph I provided ABC with, taken by Major Clarence Benjamin, of the liberation of the train. This is the photo that Buster uses when he speaks to high school classes to tell this story.

I am hopeful that we can get Buster to come to our high school for the last liberator-survivor reunion in September.

It was twenty five years ago, on this anniversary, that I wrote an essay in the local newspaper expressing my appreciation for the veterans of World War II. And as I begin to sort through and pack up 20+ years of memories in this room, three things are becoming clear: 1) my love for these men and women and what they did only increases as time passes; 2) the rest of my career will be focused on the promotion of narrative history in the classroom, linking students, veterans and survivors together; and 3) I won’t be getting any packing done this day.

Take a minute to watch Buster in the clip and take his optimism about the future of our nation to heart. Especially if -”you’re an American.”

The Story with Dick Gordon.

Steve Barry and Carrol Walsh did an interview with Dick Gordon of American Public Media for National Public Radio. It was broadcast, appropriately, on Memorial Day. Very well done and very powerful.

You can read the previous post for  more information and links.

You can go to the link here to listen in.    For Memorial Day: A Special Reunion

I received this email while I was at the last liberator-survivor reunion.

March 27th, 2009.

“Dear Mr. Rozell,

My father was a medical officer with the 30th Infantry.  It is astounding to me that I saw the article just now in the NY Times on line, and this week will be my father’s 20th Yahrzeit (anniversary of his death).  Cornelius Ryan interviewed him for the book The Last Battle. On page 329 of that book he wrote:

“The psychological effect of the camps on officers and men was beyond assessment.  On the Ninth Army front in a village near Magdeburg, Major Julius Rock, a medical officer with the 30th Infantry, came up to inspect a freight train which the 30th had stopped.  It was loaded with concentration camp inmates.  Rock, horrified, immediately unloaded the train.  Over the local burgomaster’s vehement protests, Rock billeted the inmates in German homes–but not until his battalion commander had given a crisp command to the complaining burgomaster. “If you refuse,”he said simply, “I’ll take hostages and shoot them.”

After the book was published, my father received a letter from a Connecticut woman who had been a child on that train, along with her mother.  Dad had never spoken about this to me, but he began to talk about it.  He talked about the strict orders given about how to feed the liberated survivors; he said that only rice water was to be given for the first several days.  I understand that in other places many survivors died in similar situations from gastro-intestinal shutdown from being overfed.

All of my father’s maps and pictures are archived in the Jewish War Veterans’ Museum in Washington, D.C.  I do have some photocopies of some of the pictures, including, I believe, the train.

Thank you for keeping alive this outstanding testimony to the heroism of these brave soldiers, survivors and physicians.”

I’m heading to Washington this summer to conduct more research at the Holocaust Museum and to see Rock’s documents at the Jewish War Veterans’ Museum. I have  located the woman in CT that this writer speaks of, as well as 60 or so other child survivors. Actually, she located me almost 2 years ago, and now Rock’s daughter has found me.

And to find this information in a major work that was published 4 decades ago is amazing to me. I asked the school librarian to see if we had it yesterday. He handed me a first edition that had not circulated since 1978! It is chock full of references to the 30th Infantry Division, and in the back I even found in his list of interviewees  a 30th ID vet from Hudson Falls, NY, our own town! I’ll be chasing down that lead, you can be sure.

Post Script: I was very lucky to find author Cornelius Ryan’s (The Longest Day,  The Last Battle, A Bridge Too Far”) daughter as well. He passed away in 1974. When the star studded film “A Bridge Too Far” came out, I remember it was one of the rare moments in high school when my father and I did something together and went to see the film at the local cinema (and I remember it vividly- we both commented how much our butts hurt from sitting for three hours in the uncomfortable chairs, but it was still a father-teenage son moment).

I also called the widow of the 30th Infantry Division veteran that Ryan interviewed for the book from our own small town- he passed away the same year as Ryan, 35 years ago. But his widow remembered the interview well. Now I’m off in search of additional liberators of the train in Ryan’s notes with his archivist in Ohio.

Mr Ryan’s daughter wrote to me a few nights ago (Mr. Ryan was born in Dublin, went to England, and served as a war correspondent before settling in the US):

“This is really a amazing series of events.. Strange, I was watching Schindler’s List on HBO last night and I was so moved by the ending when the living survivors paid tribute to him at his headstone. I guess I will never be able to “get my head around” what happened to the Jewish people and man’s inhumanity to man.

You have certainly touched on a special person in my life, my father. Oh how he would have loved to have heard this. I can just imagine him putting on his high British accent (something he learned to do when he went to England at 19 years old. Apparently having an Irish brogue was not synonymous with being particularly learned.). Anyway, he would have loved this new information and the fact you have located the woman in CT and so many other child survivors. I am pretty sure he would have been thrilled. While I know that my father was quite able to be true to the specific “facts”, I believe what interested him the most were the people. He used to say that the “major players” had plenty of notoriety and any “Tom, Dick or Harry could write about those poor bastards.” But he believed, it was the “little people, caught up in the tragedy of war” who had the real stories to tell. And once again, he was right.”

Cornelius Ryan was the rock star amongst U.S. WWII historians. To find these references in his book and to be in contact with his family… she concluded with:

“How great of you to send me news of this. There are really no coincidences…..these interlocking series of events were all truly too remarkable…Seems to me that someone is hollering at you to follow your dream. “

I was the guest speaker at a local temple this evening. It was a beautiful ceremony of remembrance, with music and song…. I may have been the only non-Jew there and I was the honored guest.

Honored guest!

I kept biting my lip and hoping I would not lose it, or cry, when it was my turn to speak. And then it dawns on me… the last time I got really emotional about all this was at the same time last year, sitting in the temple, participating in the service and waiting for the cue. Sometimes I wonder how I manage to hold it all together… and I know it’s because I do not force myself to slow down and think about it all.

Why is this happening to me? How can I be so blessed as to be a conduit between survivors and their new found liberators, the American soldiers responsible for the lives and the families that they have created over the past 64 years? Why do these new coincidences and miracles, these amazing  people with stories of tragedy and triumph, of survival against the odds, keep coming to my inbox or telephone, without solicitation? Why do these amazing, interconnected and intertwining  threads seem almost to be weaving themselves into a tapestry of unfolding time?  In the end, I can’t go there. How can I? Just let it be, just let it unfold, I tell myself.

We slowly recite the names: Belsen, Sobibor, Belzec, Buchenwald, Dachau, Treblinka, Chelmno, Auschwitz…, read the poems of destruction and the prayers of hope, and wonder about the redemption of the human race. The Kaddish, the prayer for the dead, is said.

It was touch and go for me for a little while. In the end, I did fine. Folks were very thankful and kept coming up to me after the service. A very nice lady came up and proudly insisted that she was my fourth grade teacher, though I don’t think that she was.

I told the congregation of my work and the work of my colleagues with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. And I informed them of the death of our liberator Dr. George C.  Gross. I read to them the eyewitness liberator account that I received out of the blue on March 11th, and told them of our recent reunion and our plans for one final upcoming reunion between liberators and many survivors.

At the very end, a beautiful older woman approached me as I left the temple and told me that before her conversion to Judaism 15 years ago, she had never been taught about the Holocaust and knew very little of it…then, as she made small talk and I was contemplating my exit strategy, she touched me,  held my hand and stroked my arm warmly, and told me that I was blessed, and that I had a special place in heaven. God himself is preparing a special place. But not too soon, I try to joke.

The greatest crime in the history of the world. And I guess my own personal responsibility is to try to keep the memory alive, because it will fade as our liberators and survivors pass on.

But not too soon, I hope.

Painting: Martin Spett, The Ashes”

Each mound of victims’ ashes represents a different concentration camp. A traditional depiction of Death hovers over the six inmates of a camp who represent the six-million Jewish casualties during the Holocaust. On the left foreground is the exhortation: “Remember” in six languages.
Martin Spett was liberated on the train near Magdeburg.